---
title: The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weake… — The Jungle Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. Who acts: beasts, reason. A sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Jungle Book, The Jungle Book, part 1, sentence 67

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The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him.

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**Who acts:** beasts, reason · **What happens:** give, be, live, touch · **To what, where:** reason, beast

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This is a sentence of «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beasts, reason), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg236:44`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg236:1:67
# text = The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:outer	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	among	among	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obl	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	weakest	weak	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	0	root	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	16	advmod	_	_
16	defenseless	defenseless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	det	_	_
19	living	live	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	amod	_	_
20	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	expl	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	unsportsmanlike	unsportsmanlike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	csubj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | present | the beasts | the reason *not said here* |  |  |  | among men *= man* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | the reason |  |  |  |  | of all living things; weak *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | the reason *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **live** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | the reason *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unsportsmanlike *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **touch** | to-infinitive |  | beast |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Co-Theme |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Jungle Book» by Rudyard Kipling, Project Gutenberg book 236 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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